EPTOn February 14 2026 09:30 Fleetfeet wrote:
Why did you feel the need to include a condescending paragraph about Wombat having the choice to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand, in response to Wombat's post indicating that he chooses to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand?
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On February 14 2026 06:12 dyhb wrote:
I would like to live in a world where the center-right incorporates elements of policies that the center-left screwed up, and become a clear alternative. Consider when Germany's center-right was opposed to stricter asylum/migration policies, and then under Merz basically adopted them to deny power to the AfD's anti-immigration platform. Or when Sweden's right-of-center parties, historically isolating the far-right by refusing them coalition membership, eventually partnered with them. It turns out that many parties and countries aren't willing to do that. It's a pity about the results of it.
Now, I'm having trouble deciding whether your plan of action is deliberately designed to extend the power and influence of fringe ideas and fringe parties, or if it's just an accidental consequence of a failure to understand contemporary political issues. The world didn't just happen to get more racist and xenophobic and extreme after Obama and Merkel and Cameron (etc). These were real voting people that decided that mainstream parties/candidates weren't serious about policies to correct problems as they perceived them, and suffered the wrath of the center-left and left-wing for changing their votes to indicate their dissatisfaction. The last thing you want to do in that is to wantonly declare them not worth talking to and morally reprehensible. That just cements the first error.
(Also, you always have the choice to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand. The choice to throw up your hands and dismiss new information, because you're tired or perceive bad faith, is still your choice and not some external inevitability. I'd certainly know far less about the left wing and fringe left if I refused to read what was written by people that are dismissive, insulting, or routinely operating in bad faith. Yourself potentially included, since I'm not clairvoyant on why you said "you seem to have rather grasped the lay of the land" to describe an obviously petulant and idiotic lengthy rant.)
On February 14 2026 03:28 WombaT wrote:
The entire right populist agenda that’s encroaching across much of the ‘Western world’ as it were contains many elements I find rephensible.
Civility to me has as a pre-requisite not holding utterly reprehensible views, and not wasting my time.
Perfectly happy to civilly engage conservatives over various ideological disagreements, done it here plenty, done it elsewhere plenty. Indulging in conversations where your partner will insist that the sky is actually green very much falls within the purview
It ain’t those former types currently driving things, certainly not in the States, from both the top and the bottom of the chain, very much is the latter.
What is there to talk about when the goalposts and positions seemingly perpetually shift? When actual good faith discussion is in very short supply indeed?
Patience and civility are not infinite resources, eventually people just couldn’t be arsed anymore, that’s not really on them.
I find the encroachment of populism to be precisely due to the overgeneralization of the people voting for populists as bad people not worth convincing or engaging beyond the discourse of the middle finger. The further corollary is a fundamental distrust of Democracy by center-left and far-let figures when the voters deliver candidates that are deeply opposed to their policies and not hesitant at all to declare it to their faces in a vocal, brash, and populist manner.On February 13 2026 10:01 dyhb wrote:
On February 13 2026 06:58 WombaT wrote:
Is this just to run in perpetuity no matter how reprehensible one’s policy prescriptions are, or individuals or political movements one carries water for?
I'm a little hopeful that you can use your words to describe how and what you find reprehensible, instead of adopting the kind of insulting epithets that debases yourself. You really embody the perspective that talking about the issues is over, and now is the time to flash the middle fingers and perform your outrage.On February 13 2026 05:56 dyhb wrote:
Go find ten things that are genuine disagreements without implying moral bankruptcy, and at least three things from your post that you'd equally apply to describe yourself. I'll take your literal post to give you ideas of insults that you might want to also apply inward.
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On February 13 2026 05:35 Jankisa wrote:Dyhb, as a relative newcomer, you, to me personally are the worse of them. The vile shit you spew out justifying murder of 2 boys, 11 and 8 in Gaza over in the Palestine thready and your doubling down is some of the worse sociopathic shit I've red on this forum, and that's saying a lot.
I don't even want to address anything you write in this thread because you are as uninteresting as you are inhumane.
As you can tell from my previous post, I'm not interested in currying favor with somebody that tries to insult their way out of having a topical, interesting conversation. We've all heard it from kids that you're on the side of light and your opponents are on the side of darkness. There's really nowhere to go until you discover shared humanity and empathy. I don't even want to address anything you write in this thread because you are as uninteresting as you are inhumane.
Go find ten things that are genuine disagreements without implying moral bankruptcy, and at least three things from your post that you'd equally apply to describe yourself. I'll take your literal post to give you ideas of insults that you might want to also apply inward.
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On February 13 2026 01:07 Jankisa wrote:
For me, it's about getting one over Republicans and punishing them and anyone who is white, applying laws selectively and spitting on my fellow countrymen. Basically, I just regurgitate bullshit talking points and marching orders I get from watching left-wing influencers.
Whatever right-wingers propose, I post diatribes I copy pasted from left-wing outlets. I never leaves my media bubble and when challenged, I ignore it and keep on spamming bullshit.
The saddest part is that I'm just a sad incel who has no personality or interests of my own so I live vicariously by watching protesters break the law.
I am so blinded by propaganda and hate, I'm so convinced that Republicans are the poison killing America that I is willing to cheer on downright fascism as long as they punish the people I hate, namely Republicans, MAGA and anyone else progressives blame.
This can range from free-market types and everyone else not breaking the law to oppose the government.
I am a petty person who blame all the issues in the USA on Republicans.
For me, it's about getting one over Republicans and punishing them and anyone who is white, applying laws selectively and spitting on my fellow countrymen. Basically, I just regurgitate bullshit talking points and marching orders I get from watching left-wing influencers.
Whatever right-wingers propose, I post diatribes I copy pasted from left-wing outlets. I never leaves my media bubble and when challenged, I ignore it and keep on spamming bullshit.
The saddest part is that I'm just a sad incel who has no personality or interests of my own so I live vicariously by watching protesters break the law.
I am so blinded by propaganda and hate, I'm so convinced that Republicans are the poison killing America that I is willing to cheer on downright fascism as long as they punish the people I hate, namely Republicans, MAGA and anyone else progressives blame.
This can range from free-market types and everyone else not breaking the law to oppose the government.
I am a petty person who blame all the issues in the USA on Republicans.
Is this just to run in perpetuity no matter how reprehensible one’s policy prescriptions are, or individuals or political movements one carries water for?
The entire right populist agenda that’s encroaching across much of the ‘Western world’ as it were contains many elements I find rephensible.
Civility to me has as a pre-requisite not holding utterly reprehensible views, and not wasting my time.
Perfectly happy to civilly engage conservatives over various ideological disagreements, done it here plenty, done it elsewhere plenty. Indulging in conversations where your partner will insist that the sky is actually green very much falls within the purview
It ain’t those former types currently driving things, certainly not in the States, from both the top and the bottom of the chain, very much is the latter.
What is there to talk about when the goalposts and positions seemingly perpetually shift? When actual good faith discussion is in very short supply indeed?
Patience and civility are not infinite resources, eventually people just couldn’t be arsed anymore, that’s not really on them.
I would like to live in a world where the center-right incorporates elements of policies that the center-left screwed up, and become a clear alternative. Consider when Germany's center-right was opposed to stricter asylum/migration policies, and then under Merz basically adopted them to deny power to the AfD's anti-immigration platform. Or when Sweden's right-of-center parties, historically isolating the far-right by refusing them coalition membership, eventually partnered with them. It turns out that many parties and countries aren't willing to do that. It's a pity about the results of it.
Now, I'm having trouble deciding whether your plan of action is deliberately designed to extend the power and influence of fringe ideas and fringe parties, or if it's just an accidental consequence of a failure to understand contemporary political issues. The world didn't just happen to get more racist and xenophobic and extreme after Obama and Merkel and Cameron (etc). These were real voting people that decided that mainstream parties/candidates weren't serious about policies to correct problems as they perceived them, and suffered the wrath of the center-left and left-wing for changing their votes to indicate their dissatisfaction. The last thing you want to do in that is to wantonly declare them not worth talking to and morally reprehensible. That just cements the first error.
(Also, you always have the choice to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand. The choice to throw up your hands and dismiss new information, because you're tired or perceive bad faith, is still your choice and not some external inevitability. I'd certainly know far less about the left wing and fringe left if I refused to read what was written by people that are dismissive, insulting, or routinely operating in bad faith. Yourself potentially included, since I'm not clairvoyant on why you said "you seem to have rather grasped the lay of the land" to describe an obviously petulant and idiotic lengthy rant.)
Why did you feel the need to include a condescending paragraph about Wombat having the choice to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand, in response to Wombat's post indicating that he chooses to listen, ask questions, and seek to understand?
What is there to talk about when the goalposts and positions seemingly perpetually shift? When actual good faith discussion is in very short supply indeed?
Patience and civility are not infinite resources, eventually people just couldn’t be arsed anymore, that’s not really on them.
In order to address the passive voice here. It either fully or partially contradicts your summary of the entire post.Patience and civility are not infinite resources, eventually people just couldn’t be arsed anymore, that’s not really on them.
